Here comes the second day, and today's main flavours are hard rock on Mainstage 1 and metalcore under the Terrorizer Tent. Add a pinch of darkness, and thrash and death violence. Serve hot, cool with a bit of rain and a freezing night.
Isn't that a near-perfect recipe for a day at Hellfest?

Marcel: Dew-Scented are a band I would never buy an album of, but are great for watching at festivals early on. Here at Hellfest they once again proved that fact. At the ungodly early hour of 10.30 a.m. these Germans took Mainstage 2 by storm with their brand of vile thrash and boundless energy. The small crowd that had gathered to see them play appreciated the effort the band put in. All in all a nice energetic opening of another long day in France.

Collin: I don't think there is anything better to wake you up after a bad night of sleep than bluesy hard rock, especially when it is done nicely and with a cool 70's vibe like Electric Mary's. It felt kind of cosy and relaxed, which is all I was asking for after my morning coffee.

Marcel: On my way to the VIP area to recharge my phone I had to pass Mainstage 2 where the totally unknown, to me, Electric Mary was playing. And instead of entering the VIP area the band managed to capture my attention musically, making me enjoy the last part of their set. Great sleazy hard rock/metal, which would have come across even better had it been sunny and in the mid to high twenties instead of drizzling in the high teens. The band enjoyed themselves immensely and so did the people watching. Anyone who likes sleazy hard rock/metal should check them out. I sure will delve into their recorded works after today's gig.

Momo: This show was their first after what? Thirteen, fourteen years? As they were a quite different band back then, let's say it was their debut show (well, it sure was for their drummer, who played his first ever live set).
And the soundcheck didn't really went as the band wanted, so they just started their set being quite nervous. And well, they quickly gained their footing and the show was fairly good, even if quite logically the sound wasn't great at first. The band didn't use any scenery on stage, but they did have some things to stand out anyway, just to add a bit of a fitting sci-fi touch: a headset microphone for Brett, electronic drums for the, well, drummer, and two keyboards!
The setlist was of course centered on Cybion, with the first parts played in order, then the "Lost Souls" song from their Skies demo, and then they finished with the whole part D out of Cybion. Imperfect, but a great set!

wrathchild: I hope you heard of Kalisia since the release of their album Cybion last year. To some people, the release was insipid, to others it was genius. I'm among the others and so I was eager to see this live performance - first time on stage for about 13 years! 2 keyboards, an electronic drumkit, a microphone headset, I guess it did comfort the sceptics in their opinion, but in fact it made no difference in the music that was perfectly similar to the album. My only complaint is that I did feel like I could hear the guitars less and less throughout the show, strange. The good thing is that I could focus on the keyboard, the bass and the singing (especially the female singer) thus discovering a few details that are not put forward on the record. I think they played the opening and ending of Cybion but they also played the song "Lost Soul" from the Skies demo (1995). Fans of the band weren't disappointed, the show definitely met their expectations and there was a lot of respect and gratitude shown to the band before they left the stage. Let's hope we'll see them on tour sometime soon!

Marcel: As a lot of people know, I am not a fan, and that is putting it mildly, of this prog technical metal band. But I thought I should at least give them a try live, at what would be their first ever gig, for they might surprise me. There are quite a few bands that I totally don't like on album but surprise me live. One such band also played this Saturday. But more about that later.
Well, mmm, shame, although Kalisia wasn't as pretentious and twiddling as on album, they failed to win me over. It was apparent this was their first ever gig. Not tight at all and the sound wasn't too good either. And here they bored me even more.
Maybe in hindsight it was a bad idea to give this band the chance to play their first gig at an open air festival so early in the morning. My advice is… go back and play in small clubs first to tighten up your sound and only then start playing big festivals. Ah well, at least I gave them a fair try by staying for the duration of a little over half their set.

Momo: Like it or not, this EBM/punk/metal band deserves recognition, as they really gave all they had and played an energic set, with strippers and pyrotechnics and stuff. Somewhat impressive, but not really interesting if you ask me.

Marcel: Industrial, electronic music. Totally not my cup of tea. And especially not when the band members are attention seeking bare chested apes, whose only saving grace for most of the people present would be the firebreathing strippers. What a waste of good stage space which, I think, should have been used for local French talent and not local French caca. Shame.

Promonex: "They are fucking disco, man!
- Who cares?! They got strippers!!"
This was actually the whole Tamtrum discussion between Ivor and me. And I'll admit it, I was the second guy
But as a matter of fact I'll have to agree with Marcel. Tamtrum belong to that kind of dark electro bands which need to impress with sexual connotations, similar to Alien Vampires or Agonoize. They were fun for being different from the rest of the billing and it certainly speaks for the diversity of Hellfest's lineup, but even for a dark electro act they were sub-par. Next year consider booking something like Combichrist, please.

Momo: Technical death metal with one of Pestilence's bass players? Yes please! Especially when you consider that Cosmogenesis, their latest album, is pure goodness.
But I was in for a big disappointment. Jeroen Paul Thesseling wasn't there; let's be honest however, his replacement was really talented too! But the real problem was with the sound: it was so blurry you could barely recognize the songs and sounds. A shame, really, as the band seemed very happy to be there...

Marcel: A band I had seen previously in a small club and enjoyed very much. I wondered how they would fare at a big festival, especially due to the fact their regular bass wizard extraordinaire Jeroen P. Thesseling wouldn't be handling bass duties here due to commitments with Pestilence elsewhere in the world.
Well, the stand-in bass player was great. But this concert was the second real major letdown for me, first one being Fear Factory the previous day. The sound was so muddled and inconsistent I couldn't make head or tails what they were playing. The band seemed to enjoy themselves as did most of the crowd. But for me the sound totally spoiled it and made me decide to stroll on down to Mainstage 1 to have a laugh at Delain.

Marcel: Laugh I did, but not for the reason I was expecting. I truly despise Delain's music and what they stand for on album, where they come across as almost a parody band of female fronted symphonic metal to me. But, lo and behold, live they were immensely enjoyable for this old man. Much heavier and more focused than on album, great stage presence, and tight playing and totally focused on the music. Charlotte Wessels singing was miles above what I had expected of her being capable of live. That the music sounded beefier and heavier than on album isn't really surprising seeing that Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, of Detonation, has joined Delain on bass and Ewout Pieters, of Mythlorian, has joined them on guitar.
All in all a truly nice unexpected surprise for me Delain live.
Or am I just getting old and need my softer moments during a festival as well? Mmmm, anyone who knows the answer, please fill me in.

Collin: "Hey, you over there! Yes, you! Delain, is it? See that mill? Can you please run off it? Yeah, like this, excellent. You've been doing that for years, haven't you? Can you please do it again? Thanks. And ag... Oh no, now it's boring. Please stop. I said stop! Will you just stop, you dull female-fronted pop metal band? Ok, the girl can stay, she's got a nice voice. But the rest of you, crawl back into the hole you should never have got out of. Thank you very much."

Baz Anderson: Well, Gerre has certainly lost a lot of weight. He looked like a new person with a completely new energy that transferred into the band's set. Running around the stage like a madman, Tankard put on a superb, fun set of their own thrash metal. It was party time at Hellfest for these Germans who brought a fantastic energy with them to deliver an entertaining set.

Momo: Beer, that's what Tankard is all about. That, and friendly moshing too. This was a really entertaining thrash set, not surprising in the least, but as long as you have fun…
But I must add for the record that they didn't play "Space Beer", which saddens me a bit.

Marcel: A band for an old man like me. A band I have been fan of ever since very early 1983 but somehow hadn't seen live before, although they are immensely popular in The Netherlands and tour there often.
Heavy metal? Not really. Great bluesy hard rock which is lifted to extremely great heights by Dave Meniketti's vocals and guitar playing.
During Y&T's set the sun decided to show its face for the first time this day showing the gods approved of Y&T's set.
What the audience got was flawlessly executed blues hard rock of the highest order which only became even more impressive due to the truly excellent perfect sound and Dave being spot on with his vocals and guitar playing.
The best set of the weekend by far, I would say. And a setlist consisting of classics as "Black Tiger", "Mean Streak", "Dirty Girl", "Hurricane", "Rescue Me", "Forever" and songs of their latest album, "Facemelter", "I Am Coming Home", "On With The Show", though they fitted in well with the rest of the set those were the reason my favourite song by them, "I Believe In You", wasn't played.
Y&T showed that today would be the day of old men showing the world how to properly rock hard.

Collin: If anything, this year's Hellfest taught us all an important lesson: old people rock. Case in point: Y&T. The grandpas of heavy metal effortlessly delivered one of the most impressive performances of the day and showed all these youngsters what old school music should sound like. I totally fell in love with Dave Meniketti's vocals. The band gained a new fan. Better late than never.

Not a 'last minute' cancellation here, as Hellfest could call in a replacing band, in this case Condkoi, a quite known French punk band from Albi (south-west France, near Toulouse). Here's their myspace for you!

Momo: This is the second band to cancel at the last second or so… That, and Count Raven, makes me doubt about the Christian extremists of France. Did they really bless the site, as promised? If yes, tell me why this kind of bad luck happened??

Collin: If anything, this year's Hellfest taught us all an important lesson: old people rock. Exception: Raven. The grandpas of heavy metal effortlessly delivered one of the most boring performances of the day and showed all these youngsters what old school music should not sound like. They seemed to have the passion, but their show lacked a mysterious little something that would have made it interesting. Maybe their songs aren't good enough to interest a beginning listener like yours truly. In any case, that was a dull show.

Marcel: Another old man's band, this Raven. This is only the second time I am seeing them live, the first time being all the way back in June 1983. That day they were the fourth band to play and the fourth band I saw live in my life. So, special memories are attached to this band for me. Would they deliver today, 27 years - 6 days later?
The core of the band, namely the Gallagher brothers on bass/vocals and guitar is still the same after all those years. And drummer Joel Hasselvander, of Death Row and Pentagram fame has been pounding away since 1988.
The band were so wise as to play mainly material off their first three albums, songs such as "Take Control", "Live At The Inferno", "All For One", "Rock Until You Drop", "Break The Chain", and "Mind Over Metal" never get old. And seeing how John and Mark Gallagher still give it their everything the band hasn't aged that much, just gained a couple of kilos.
The athletic rock was still as athletic as all the way back in 1983: playing just as tight, John still screaming/singing as high as ever, playing with the crowd as in their heydays.
Another band of oldies proving that old men still rock hardest.

wrathchild: I probably have never heard a song by Pretty Maids before, but I wanted to catch a bit of their show because they're a big influence to a band I love: Manigance. With the first notes it became obvious why, as the whole sound was familiar. Basically, Manigance are just more modern, prog, power and French but the base of their music seems to lie just there, in Pretty Maids. So what's it about actually? Heavy metal with a keyboard that isn't just used to create an atmosphere but has the same importance as the other instruments. There was a 80's feel to it, as well as an "FM" vibe that might have failed to captivate that many Hellfesters, but it was a pleasant moment.

Baz Anderson: As with Pestilence at Hellfest the year before, it was time for Asphyx to shine on the same stage this year. This classic kind of death metal always comes over brilliantly live. Asphyx, absolutely crushing. The material from the new album sounded great along with the older stuff. The Asphyx stamp was much more noticeable live also, the slower, heavier, almost doomy parts mixing in with the 'old school' death metal made this one of the most enjoyable sets of the festival.

Collin: Dirty death metal for the win! Those crazy Dutchmen delivered a massive slab of doomy death metal that tore the Rock Hard tent to pieces. This is exactly what you would expect from Asphyx: old school death metal from the gutter, with flawless execution, fat breaks and accelerations of epic proportions, combined with Martin van Drunen's distinctive vocals and a brilliant delivery of both the old and new songs. Asphyx is one of the only death metal bands I can think of that are about as good now as they were in the 90's, and it shows during their concerts. There's no timeout, only ass-kicking.

Marcel: After two sets of hard rock and good old NWOBHM is was time for some old school death metal with the focus on songs and groove and not technical wizardry or brutality for brutality's sake.
Asphyx took the stage with gale force 11. Van Drunen being in a particularly good mood (could be due to the Dutch team just having beaten Japan at the football World Cup and therefore almost certain of going into the next round?) and the band playing as tight as a duck's ass and bludgeoning the audience into submission with grooves, loads of grooves. Van Drunen as always had the crowd totally in his power from the get-go and once again showing what a truly formidable frontman he is, and vocally perfect as well. Once the last tones of "The Rack" had subsided every one present in the Rock Hard tent were left behind wanting more. But, of course, what else could you expect with perfect renditions of highlights "M. S. Bismarck", "Death The Brutal Way", "Wasteland Of Terror", "Asphyx (Forgotten War)" and a blistering doomy version of "The Rack".
Asphyx, a true steamrolling old school death metal panzer warmachine.

wrathchild: This morning started at the Metal Corner, where the recent documentary about Anvil was shown on the big screen. It starts with "All the bands from that era became big, except one: Anvil" and then you discover the daily life of the two founding members of Anvil, etc. I had to leave to catch Kalisia but still this intro made me very interested in watching Anvil later on that day. And when the time had come I truly enjoyed it - while I knew not even a single song - because of the sympathy towards the band that the movie had set earlier and also because of their communicative and apparent happiness to play. While not an extraordinary show, it still qualifies as one of the highlights of the festival to me.

Marcel: The band everyone seems to have rediscovered through the utterly brilliant "Anvil: The Story Of Anvil" documentary. Finally they receive a bit of the recognition they should have got all those years back when they released Metal On Metal and Forged In Fire. Anvil did well to keep the set focused on material of their first three albums, except for "White Rhino" off 2002's Still Going Strong and title track "This Is Thirteen" off their latest (from 2007).
But did the band deliver? I am sorry to say… not really. Anvil kicked off with the instrumental "March Of The Crabs" and seemed to be firing on all cylinders but the rest, and especially "666" and "Skool Love", came across messy plus Lips, unlike John Gallagher of Raven, couldn't reach the high notes like he could in the olden days. Of course, Lips brought out the vibrator during "Mothra" for his infamous vibrator solo, but unfortunately a drum solo was incorporated during "White Rhino". Who in his right mind plays a drum solo during a 50 minute set? No matter how good a drummer Robb Reiner is, and he truly is a great drummer.
All in all not as satifying as I had hoped for. Nothing much wrong with the setlist, although I would have prefered "Motormount" instead of the drumsolo. Or am I a grumpy old man? Who in his right mind would whine about hearing "March Of The Crabs", "666", "School Love", "Winged Assassins", "This Is Thirteen", "Mothra", "White Rhino", "Forged In Fire", "Metal On Metal" live, right? Like I said, it wasn't the setlist, it was the execution.

Promonex: Yep Marcel, you definitely are an old man
I'm neither familiar with Anvil's music nor with their eponymous movie. The first positive surprise came for me as a photographer: "All in at once, and you can stay as long as you want." WTF?! All other bands had us kicked out of the photo pit after one or two songs, but those Canadians, who by the way have played their very first gig in France here at Hellfest, have made an awesome impression to me even before they went on stage. And then they came and played with such an enormous amount of energy that it was pure bliss just to watch them. The band obviously loved what they were doing, they loved playing whatever and however they wanted, even if it's a drum solo in a 50 minute set, they loved playing for the audience and the audience - except for the grumpy old man above me - loved them in return. The stage presence was superb, the interaction with the fans was top-notch, the playing, well, that might have been a bit sloppy, but who cares as long as the band and the fans (sans one Dutch guy) had their fun. In terms of band-crowd interaction probably the best gig of the whole festival.

wrathchild: The roaring on the Mainstage 1 quickly got most of the festival goers gathering to see what was going on there. That was simply Airbourne getting on stage for another exuberant show of theirs, or at least of their frontman, 'cause everyone who was at Hellfest 2008 remembers how crazy the guy was, running everywhere on stage, jumping here and there and climbing the metallic tower that supports the stage and playing a solo up there. Of course this time he did it all again, and went a bit further by climbing to the very top of the tower. Next time he'll need a helicopter to pick him up if he wants to go higher! So that was a very entertaining performance, and you could just care less that the music is a slightly heavier rip-off of AC/DC.

Momo: All bands from Italy do seem to have this oh-so-cheesy keyboard sound, just like Rhapsody. And that's pretty strange coming from Sadist, as they don't sound that way on album (as far as I know). It's a shame, really, because this made me laugh a bit and I didn't enjoy this prog/thrash set as I should have.

Collin: Yeah, ok, that was funny. Not in a good way. Unfortunately, impressive execution doesn't always rhyme with interesting performance (technically it never does, it's an image). While it was visually impressive to see the guitar player play both guitar and keyboards at the same time, Sadist's technical thrash just wasn't interesting. And like Momo said, the cheese factor killed any semblance of seriousness the band could have. Next please.

Momo: Finally, a chance to see Warrel Dane & co. live! Hell, I don't even know if they played in France for This Godless Endeavor. So you can imagine how happy I was, like quite a few other French fans.
I knew beforehand (from Warrel Dane himself) that the band wouldn't play the awesome "This Godless Endeavour" song. Apart from this sad fact, the setlist was quite good (see below), even if there were no songs out of The Politics Of Ecstasy; the new songs are indeed really good live, especially "Your Poison Throne" with its 'Rise! Rise! Rise!'.
And what of the musicians? Perfect, or something like that. Jeff Loomis capitalized} shreds awesomely well, Attila Vörös really is a good guitar player too... And Warrel Dane sure is a charismatic frontman, quite crazy too; the crowd went nuts everytime he asked for it - which was pretty often.
Now, when will they really tour in France??...

wrathchild: I like Nevermore since I discovered them at Graspop in 2005, touring for This Godless Endeavour which is still my fav. The new album is good but not excellent IMO, but I have to admit it sounded very good live. Of course I was expecting that they play "Born" and they played it so from that time on I was happy with the show! But I'm not sure if Loomis was ever happy to perform on this Saturday. I was on his side of the stage and I don't remember a single sign of him not being on a 'let's do the job and then bye' mood. But maybe it's just me... At least, he did his job and as always he was brilliant, just as the rest of the band.

Baz Anderson: Nevermore are always excellent live. This was no different. Armed with a new album, the band plunged into a set that shouldn't have been as good as it was. The set included a lot of new material from an album that a few people have had a hard time grasping. Not only did the new songs make sense and work really well live, they have subsequently also made the CD make sense. Nevermore are a truly top class band, and this time slot was evidently not enough with such criminal omissions as "Narcosynthesis". Amusingly Warrel slipped up with one of the new songs, but overall this was one of the best sets of the festival.

Marcel: I wasn't planning to watch Slash, actually. But somehow I ended up watching bits and pieces of the gig. Let me be totally honest. Slash solo, be it in his current incarnation, with Slash's Snakepit or Velvet Revolver, I have always found mediocre at best. His albums proved to me that he needed Axl for the good songs. The guy can play guitar there's no denying that, but he can't write a good song to save his life.
Tonight that point was proved once again. 'Cause his own material was actually quite dire, even though he was supported by a good band with a great vocalist. But when Guns & Roses songs such as "Sweet Child Of Mine", "Welcome To The Jungle", "Rocket Queen", "Paradise City" (even though the chorus is of course borrowed extremely heavily from Rose Tattoo) played the band did shine brightly with Slash being probably the brightest star.

Baz Anderson: Over on the third stage Dark Funeral were doing their thing. The thing with Dark Funeral is that although their black metal is quite uninspired, it is good. The drumming and general speed especially is remarkable, but the whole satanic thing and titles like "666 Voices Inside" are just a little too much to take on when they are being fed to you in a serious manner. A bizarre Slayer cover and some more satanic worship later and we find ourselves having mildly enjoyed this set of both the sublime and the ridiculous.

Baz Anderson: Annihilator were a total surprise. The Canadians provided an infectious, fun, quirky but solid set of heavy thrash metal. The new material sounded great and left the audience wanting more with "Alison Hell".

wrathchild: 'AAAAAA-lison Hell' is definitely all I expect from an Annihilator show... Yeah, it's sad, but rejoice for this time I had more than what I expect from an Annihilator show! So of course it ended with "The Fun Palace" and "Alison Hell" but what was new compared to the previous shows I attended was that Waters sang a lot more, and he makes a better frontman than Padden (not that he's bad, no, no). Waters made the show a lot more entertaining, although it could have been a lot more interesting if he had succeeded in bringing either Jeff Loomis or Michael Ammot on stage, as was the plan he mentioned in an interview for the Hellfest website. Sadly it didn't happen yet nevertheless I think some people could discover or rediscover Annihilator after their performance.

Marcel: Another band I hadn't seen live for over twenty years. Last time was with Messiah Marcolin on vocals in between the release of Nightfall and Ancient Dreams.
Kick off time was "Mirror, Mirror", of course a great song, but oh my god how much can a band be going through the motions? Well, extremely much is apparent now. But thank god Candlemass redeemed themselves during the gig and ended on a high note with "The Bleeding Baroness" and "Solitude". Unfortunately the set was marred by the sound which saw to it that the vocals couldn't be heard quite a lot of times. Another annoying aspect about the Candlemass show I found to be the idiots moshing and slam dancing as if it were a thrash or death metal gig. For fuck's sake, this is doom… NO MOSHING & SLAM DANCING.
Even though musically the band ended on a high note, the entire gig left me feeling ambivalent about it all. Not as good as it could have been. A missed chance, unfortunately.

Momo: I missed the swedish doom masters in 2008 (shame on me) and this year I was sure to see them, no matter what!
Don't let Marcel fool you when he says their show was average. Oh, well, OK, maybe it was, but we French people rarely get to see them, so we were happy (or to be more precise, the rare froggy fans were). The band did seem happy to play again here too, and on a better setting, more fitting to their music (two years ago, they played under the sun on Mainstage 2).
The show was quite hypnotic (of course), but some of Rob Lowe's vocals just couldn't be heard and that turned out to be quite irritating. But it didn't prevent two crowdsurfers to celebrate their love for the band during the closing song, which was none other than the über-classic "Solitude".

Baz Anderson: No costumes, no make-up, no "What You Don't Know..." to start the set. This was Twisted Sister in the year 2010, a seemingly energised band focussed on putting together different setlists and doing things a little differently to the past years. This Hellfest appearance was festival number 100 since the band reunited, and saw the band tear through a set where it seemed that every second song was one of the band's big hits. After so many years it was a real highlight to see these guys looking so good together again, the kids were surely back. A Rainbow cover in honour of Dio later, and the band looked set to set the place on fire. A real treat.

Momo: Well, I'll speak only of the second half of their set, as I missed the first one, but it was for a good reason (spell that Candlemass). I was pretty curious to see them, as they have a very good live reputation, and they are also more heavy than most bands of the glam scene. Also, remember this was their first show in France in more than 20 years!!
And I arrived just when they started to play the Rainbow song "Long Live Rock'n Roll" as a vibrant hommage to Ronnie James Dio. First noteworthy thing: the crowd was nuts. Second thing: the band was really, really happy, and was giving all they had.
There's a song that totally demonstrates this: "I Wanna Rock" (you'll easily find videos of this one on Youtube). And yes, the whole crowd jumped and screamed at Dee Snider's command, even prompting the band to stop playing, amazed at the awesome response they got.
One of the very best shows of this Hellfest for sure.

Promonex: Apparently the security guards in the Terrorizer Tent had the order to prevent any crowdsurfers from passing the crowd barrier, so they kept pushing the people back onto the ground, sometimes gently, sometimes violently. During Discharge's song "Fight Back" the guards were powerless though: dozens of surfers were rising from the crowd, ready to fight the oppressors and give them a hard time. The Dis on the other hand gave it their all to let the audience have a great time: fast, insane and with an obvious spite for anything melodic and euphonic the creators of the D-beat sound fired one punk salvo after another into the crowd, punk of the truly anarchistic kind with only one message: "Fight Back!"

Baz Anderson: The Norwegian black metal sons of northern darkness were back at Hellfest after three years, this time armed with a new album. The first half of the set was seemingly almost exclusively newer material, and however enjoyable that album was to listen to, truthfully this half of the set was unfortunately quite dull. Then "Grim And Frostbitten Kingdoms" came out of the bag and we were treated to such gems as "Withstand The Fall Of Time" and "Damned In Black". This set then apparently seemed to be one of two halves. Thankfully the band saved the best 'til last.

Momo: In 2008, My Dying Bride played around 6 PM on Mainstage 2. And while the show was good, the mood didn't really set in, just because, well, a band like them can't play under the sun. This year, their oh-so-dark mood could settle far more easily under the Rock Hard Tent, as the night was settling in...
And this was quite an energetic set! First, MDB's drummer was temporarily replaced by David Gray of Akercocke fame, and I think he added a bit of an extra punch to the songs ("She Is The Dark" was pretty much awesome). Next, Aaron Stainthorpe was of course once again deeply immersed in his songs and their dark world, but this time he was speaking between the songs! Talkative? Yes, seriously.
All this made for a really good show. It's the third time I saw them, and this was really their best so far for me!

Collin: The show lasted only 20 minutes because the drummer had to be taken to the hospital during the day and was replaced by Born From Pain's drummer, who apparently didn't know the songs. Anyway, during an Agnostic Front show you always feel like you're part of a big family, with hundreds of people cheering, singing, jumping all at once and the band really interacting with the crowd. Such hardcore anthems as "For My Family" or "Riot, Riot Upstart" set the Terrorizer tent on fire. Too bad that was just 20 minutes, really.

Baz Anderson: Perhaps not musically the most suited to the festival, but Alice still came out and put on his stage show. Kicking off the set with seemingly all his big singles, the set then transformed into the elaborate, professional theatre show that Alice has been doing for some years now with the addition of a few new songs. Those unfamiliar with Alice outside of "School's Out" might have felt a little lost in this sea of strange songs, but for those who were following along - this stage show is absolutely a top-notch production the way the songs are put together relating all the lyrics to the show on stage. The entire set felt long, perhaps too long, but for what it is worth - Alice is unquestionably still the top dog in his own area.

Momo: The very evil of festivals might be their toilets, according to some, but a close second would be the clashes between bands you want to see. And while I'm not a fan of Alice Cooper, it's sure his live reputation was enticing. So I watched the first four-five songs, classics among classics ("I'm Eighteen", "No More Mr Nice Guy", "School's Out"), and saw Alice kill someone, before a straightjacket was forced upon him.
A real, real show, horribly fun, but the dark side beckoned me under the Rock Hard Tent... And honestly, I nearly stayed, because it promised to be fun all along…

Momo: I'm pretty torn on this one. The show was mesmerizing, but the audience was so lame it kinda spoiled the party.
Let's start with the bad part, the audience. It was fucking still and motionless, not moving at all. No cheering, no banging, nothing at all, except for some rare people here and there. And they only applauded (yes, that) after each song. I don't know if it's the usual reaction of a FOTN audience, but it was lame. Really fucking LAME.
Was their show bad to warrant such a reaction? Not at all if you ask me. Visually speaking, it was simple but beautiful: the musicians of course had this dusty, post-apocalyptic western look, and the lights were probably the best ones I saw at this year's Hellfest - quite eerie, and simply beautiful. The performance was as such quite mesmerizing, especially Carl Mc Coy (of course).
And the music? Well, the setlist was mainly focused on the most metal albums, namely Zoon and Mourning Sun, with songs such as "Straight To The Light", "Penetration", "Zoon Pt. 3", "Mourning Sun" (this one's rendition was a bit disappointing, I have to admit). The sound was good, as the balancing problems got quickly solved.
All in all, a great show, but most of the audience should have been shot down beforehand.

Baz Anderson: Jeff "yeah, you know we've got the riffs" Walker and gang returned to Hellfest after two years for another performance. This time however the band treated the audience not just to their northern English accents, but pretty much the Necroticism album in its entirety. Having said this, the band did not hit the spot as they did two years ago, or how they have elsewhere since the reunion, but at the same time still put on a devastatingly entertaining set that inevitably had to include those popular songs from the Heartwork album. Perhaps it was the late finishing and tiredness creeping in once more, but although Carcass played well, they were not as impressive as previous encounters.

Momo: Cold and tired, I decided to see one or two songs of Carcass' set. Honestly, I didn't expect much, as their anticipated show two years ago wasn't that great at all.
I was 'welcomed' by photos of diseased and disfigured penises on a big screen onstage. Urk. Godfathers of gore death metal indeed! And then started Necroticism, kicking off a hugely agressive show, full of energy, and that somehow forced tired metalheads to mosh, crowd-surf, and mosh again. Speaking of Necroticism, they did play it whole, but they had a little surprise, as past the middle of the album, they played a few other tracks, just like "Buried Dreams".
All in all, infinitely better than their 2008 performance!

Collin: Oh, how I love sick penises. I long to see my love pump infected with one of these joyous little purulent ailments. When that happens, and believe me it will, be my wife okay with it or not, I'll make sure to blast Carcass's Necroticism: Whatever to show the world how merry I am. I want my lesbian converting instrument covered in pus-oozing boils as a thank you note for the devastating set Carcass treated us to, both musically and visually, when said diseased penises were repeatedly shown on the big screen behind the band. Musically though, it was definitely not the same band we saw plodding awkwardly through the last two albums in 2008. Where uneasy, shy old men once stood, there we beheld the sight of four grind gods blasting the whole Necroticism: Whatever album and its monstrous riffs and killer songwriting with a crisp and powerful sound that just tore through the night and destroyed your perceptions the way seeing those rampant buboes on male genitalia made your own apparatus very uneasy if you were a dude or longed to be one. And when that album was done, they drove it all home with "Buried Dreams", "Heartwork" and probably some other stuff I forgot. Talking about forgetting stuff, Carcass made me forget how exhausted I was and how my whole body ached from an intense day. I was so mesmerized by the vastness of the music and the sight of sick penises and eviscerations that I forgot I wanted to sleep. If that's not a clear sign of success for the band, I don't know what is. In my top 3 of the festival, for sure. Only now, I dream of infectious male organs every night.